Armagnac Archives - Page 7 of 10

Category: Armagnac

Shane

Pochegu RAC 1994 Cask E4 54.0%

Nose: Cranberry relish has the power to evoke an entire ambience. Not that jiggly canned crap, the stuff mom makes with fresh berries and orange zest. Tart and inviting green grapes that crunch. Rosehip and hibiscus tea. What a lovely and powerful blend of sour fruit notes. My kids and I have been obsessed with lemonade / limeade and we were just wondering if there was a way to barrel age it.

Palate: The wood leads the orchestra. And rocks the mid palate with a wild bassoon solo. I love wood, although this might teeter on a knife’s edge of tannic for some but I think threads the needle just right. A homemade black currant cordial concentrate mixed with champagne. Who doesn’t love a kir royal. Hibiscus. Finish shows hints of herbs. Catnip and thyme.

Rating: 7 / 10 – The palate really evolved with a nice sit and just got better. Went from a 6 to a 7 with time.

Tasting Note

Shane

Pochegu RAC 2001 Cask B12 55.0%

Nose: Rich sweet carpet. Dark maple syrup teetering on molasses. I used to soak ripe red cherries in bourbon in the freezer over the summer until cider season. It added intense base notes to the fruit. I keep expecting it to get brighter, but instead we roll into umami territory. Serenity has been experimenting with teriyaki sauce, marrying soy, sugar and vinegars. Adding a hint of starch brings a smoothness to the smell and the palate. Nearly velvety chocolate cake.

Palate: Oak shadow boxer, but with a core of soft red velvet sweetness. Explodes into a big mouthful but the cocoa carries it. Reminds me of some of the older elijah craigs. Maybe closer to chocolate malt balls. The oak tannins aren’t shy.

Rating: 7 / 10 – I quite like this. The palate doesn’t have a ton of nuance but that rich deep note is lovely. I’m right on the fence about buying and while I don’t usually talk about price when reviewing, I just added one to the cart because it’s priced right. So that puts it solid in 7 land.

Tasting Note

Shane

Pochegu RAC 1989 Cask A5 55.9%

Nose: Harkens to a good amontillado. Cherry cola notes. Royal flan, with the notes of industrial caramel syrup (that we all know is just palm or corn syrup) but damn it’s good. A wander through a fresh herb garden after a while, parsley and thyme. A lovely thick wood layer.

Palate: Tamarindo, tomato marmalade, bitter pie cherries with a notable astringency in the mid palate. I’m tasting a touch of salt but this might be because I was making barbeque sauce earlier today and got it everywhere. Peppery. Herbal notes are quite prevalent but are less easy to pull apart for me today. I’d need to come back to it, but since I don’t love herbal, the odds aren’t high I will.

Rating: 5 / 10 – this is tasty but I wouldn’t reach for it again. From the nose I was hoping for a bigger oak and cherry hit. What I found was more savory and herbal and interesting, which is not really my thing. This is an excellent pour for the herbal aficionados. Kind of leans towards some of the more agricol style rhums I don’t jive with.

Tasting Note

Shane

A6 Hontembere 2014 Folle Blanche 54.2%

Nose: Such a gentle and lofi nose. Elegant and rounded. Chestnut y hazelnut. Warm wood. Touch of dried apricots. And the after hints of loquat when my daughter had one for breakfast.

Palate: An rich and mouth coating almond nut butter, tiny hints of kumquat.

Rating: 6 / 10 – smooth is nearly an insult in whisky. But if you could elevate smooth to an artform, this is it. As an adamant fan of the neurotic, I rarely can slow down enough to appreciate this. But I put on lofi hiphop on spotify, and it paired perfectly. I could imagine happily owning a bottle, though I don’t imagine I would actually buy one given my leaning. So it’s between a 6 & 7.

Tasting Note

Shane

Pochegu RAC 2000 Cask D7 56.7%

Nose: Big lovely oak. rootbeer . vanilla pods, cloves and nutmeg.

Palate: It like a perfectly rounded bourbon. Light maple syrup sweetness. Oaky tannins. Christmas plum butter. This should be put into a wrapper and sold as candy.

Rating: 7 / 10 – this is gorgeous. And sweet deliciousness. It’s missing the complexity to transcend but dang lads. Buy this one. Paco says he would consider buying 2.

Tasting Note

Shane

Pochegu RAC 1983 Cask G4 54.8%

Nose: Cassis syrup, pink peppercorn, raspberry and rhubarb tonic

Palate: Rose hips, currant and blackberry concentrate, an amazing wood… wood… and more wood without ever going entirely over the tannic falls. Still in the shire collecting mushrooms for second breakfast.

Rating: 8 / 10 – Whoa…. Just whoa

Review

Jun 2023

Who, What, and Where are Domaine le Chaou?!?

The last few years Armagnac has experienced a small renaissance. The traditional single producer rustic brandy has struck a chord with connoisseurs. At the start..

Tasting Note

Brian Borger

Mahu 1956 for Darroze

Nose: Yummy old oak, dried citrus peels (bitter orange, grapefruit); walnut baklava, and hints of that rare tropical rancio.

Palate: Nice full blast of oaky and booze, licorice, marmalade, butter, cardboard (fresh and dry), NOLA coffee and some passionfruit and pears (rancio).

Rating: 8 / 10 – the finish is quite sweet with walnuts, honey, oranges, and also a good amount of oaky bitterness. Overall it is a delicious armagnac, rustic with all the oak and licorice, but also sweet and complex.

Tasting Note

Brian Borger

Saint Aubin 1973 29yr 47% for Darroze

Nose: Dates, walnuts and yogurt covered raisins.

Palate: Sweet, with cola, lemon zest, date paste and mushrooms.

Rating: 5 / 10 – Black pepper, vanilla buttercream and stone ground mustard. Overall, a tasty dram. Nice balance of sweet and oak, of age and fruit. Nothing surprised me here, for good or bad. These were common flavors on yak of this age. Enjoyable though.

Tasting Note

Brian Borger

Bellair 1951 for Darroze

Nose: maple, oak, tons of licorice, linen, pear and butter.

Palate: apple skins, licorice and raspberry jam.

Rating: 4 / 10 – The finish is bitter lemon and juniper. I expected more rancio, but while this didn’t taste young, it had most of the boring components of aging and few of the exciting ones. I didn’t find anything wrong necessarily, but neither does it have much to recommend it.

Tasting Note

Brian Borger

Pounon 1988 for Darroze

Nose: Oh I like this one! Extremely sweet and enticing. Stewed peaches, huge sweet oak and forest floor.

Palate: dark coffee, sweet caramelized raisins, Iberico ham, pepper jelly, tobacco, burnt toast, and dank earthy mushrooms. As always, it gets smoother and sweeter with time in the glass and warmth. But the funky mushroom flavors and burnt flavors come out more too.

Rating: 7 / 10 – 2/3 of the finish is black coffee, with 1/3 being apricot and fig jams.
For the most part, this is pretty fantastic. Reminds me of my favorite Darroze offerings from domaine Bouillon. But with a little less complexity and funk.

Tasting Note

Brian Borger

Salie 1979 47% for Darroze

Nose: The abv tickled the nose, but there’s plenty of classic old Armagnac raisins. You can smell butter, French oak, plums, vanilla cream, balsamic vinegar, and some wool sweaters.

Palate: It tastes quite peppery and boozy, with pleasant drying oak and burn. A bit of tar, toasted pumpernickel rye and figs.

Rating: 6 / 10 – Pretty long finish, with tar, sour oranges and carpet.

Tasting Note

Armagnac

Shane

Domaine Le Freche 1980 Cask #39 41.5% for L’encantada

Nose: sour gummy colas, freeze dried pineapple rings, black licorice, browned butter to the point of nuttyness, chinese 5 spice or maybe just cumin, canned pears with cloves, dark brown slowly caramelized onions topped with gruyere shavings. Next morning the glass smells like balsamic reduction. It just keeps transforming.

Palate: Starts with powerful cola. A bright burst of sweet dark warmth of panela (a dark sugar and molasses combo) and the nuttyness of De La Rosa Marzipan. Then a tiptoe across fruit funk .. prune juice, and a brush of sour reminiscent of a high end tonic. Sour but not too bitter, so I love it. Raw almonds. The mouthfeel is quite thin (as per the ABV), but leaves so much space for a rainbow of flavors. Makes my mouth water. Literally. But this can’t be a second or third dram. It has to come first. A delicate le Freche, go figure.

Rating: 7 / 10 – I’m buying another. The thin mouthfeel will annoy some folks, but I decided to embrace it.

Tasting Note

Armagnac

Shane

Domaine Le Frêche 1990 #49 52.4% for L’encantada

Nose: Birch bark, chocolate covered espresso beans, black forest cake, dark molasses, figs brûlée with a dollop of blue cheese, tart plum butter with hints of clove and allspice, wintergreen lifesavers

Palate: How odd. I was expecting glendronach and got glen-tonic. Far more herbal and less fruit forward. The palate isn’t all full bodied as the ABV implied. Lemon zest, fresh muddled mint leaves, grape skin, gentle touch clove, a light spiciness reminiscent of radish sprouts, cola on the finish then a bitterness like crushed aspirin. and a feathering of oak.

Rating: 7 / 10 – Not sad I have a few bottles but I love tonic, so if that isn’t your thing, might want to pick a different release.

Tasting Note

Armagnac

Shane

Domaine Le Frêche 1989 #120 49.9%for L’encantada

Nose: The only places open for breakfast in the Canaries are Jamonerias. I like high end cured ham just as much as the next guy, but fuck man, I just want some eggs benedict with thick cut black pepper bacon and a smoothie #expatproblems. The nose has the richness of the fatty layer of high end acorn fed iberico. And wafts of nuttyness. The spice cabinet is on the earthy side, cumin and saffron, with bright spots of clove. Middle eastern sweeties, Maamoul date cookies and pistachios. There is an umami to the nose harkening to some of the best dashi I had when in Japan.

Palate: Wintergreen. But none of the bitterness. In 5th grade in the US for many years all schools sent their kids to space camp. And you would go hike under the stars at night and they handed out wintergreen lifesavers. If you crunch them, they spark in the dark. So freaking cool. This pour is a powerful combination of sweet, sour and salty. Umeboshi japanese pickled plums. There is a traditional dish served here in the canaries: ultra thin tempura aubergine with sea salt and dark palm tree syrup. Like balsamic and molasses had a love child. This isn’t going to please everyone, but I absolutely love it. It’s challenging and interesting and everything I look for in a really good Le Freche.

Rating: 8 / 10 – I’m delighted I bought one. And wish I had a spare. Everything I liked in Le Freche 1980 turned up a notch. I’m struggling on the rating because for me it’s an 8, but I acknowledge it probably won’t be for others. It’s a touch too neurotic. Make sure you give it time to breathe in the glass. It really opened up.